JP-A-H10-248104 teaches a device, which limits an electric power of a rotating electric machine for driving a vehicle when a remaining electric power amount of a battery is reduced. Even after the remaining electric power amount of the battery is reduced, a driver can drives the vehicle in a distance to a safe place for parking the vehicle. Further, the battery is not damaged.
JP-A-2006-113892 teaches a device, which executes automatically a charge reservation process for making a reservation to a charge station, and executes a process for guiding a route to the reserved charge station when the remaining electric power amount of a battery is reduced. In this case, the driver can drive the vehicle to the charge station as a charging place.
In JP-A-H10-248104, when the remaining electric power amount of the battery is reduced, the driving performance of the vehicle is automatically limited. In this case, behavior of the vehicle is suddenly changed largely under a condition that a driver of the vehicle is not informed about the limitation of the driving performance. Accordingly, the driver has a feeling of strangeness, and is dissatisfied.
In JP-A-2006-113892, electric power consumption of multiple electric devices mounted on the vehicle is not considered. Accordingly, when the electric power consumption of an in-vehicle electric device is large, the driver may not be able to drive the vehicle to the charge place. Further, if usage of the in-vehicle electric device is restricted, a function provided by the in-vehicle electric device is not obtained, so that passenger comfort and convenience are not provided. Thus, the passenger in the vehicle may have a feeling of strangeness, and is dissatisfied.
The above difficulties may occur at a vehicle having an energy source obtained from fuel such as gasoline, in addition to an electric vehicle having an energy source obtained from electric power of a battery.